The work design contribution to educational workers' sustainable wellbeing and performance patterns

Amalia Raquel Pérez-Nebra; Brenda Soares Viana; Eva Lira; Pilar Martín-Hernandez; María Luisa Gracia-Pérez; Marta Gil-Lacruz

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1020942

The work design contribution to educational workers' sustainable wellbeing and performance patterns

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 9:13:1020942. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1020942. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Amalia Raquel Pérez-Nebra¹, Brenda Soares Viana², Eva Lira¹, Pilar Martín-Hernandez¹, María Luisa Gracia-Pérez¹, Marta Gil-Lacruz¹

Affiliations

¹ Social Capital and Wellbeing Research Group (BYCS), Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
² Department of Management, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil.

Abstract

Brazilian education faces difficulties relating to performance and illness, suggesting that the characteristics of the work can affect both variables. This study aims to describe the work characteristics that increase the odds of having happy-productive patterns in education workers. A total of 4,598 employees of the Secretariat of Education of the Federal District (SEEDF) participated in the research, answering questionnaires about work design (Brazilian version, with 18 factors), wellbeing (containing three factors), and performance. The results showed that task, social, and contextual characteristics increase the probability of being in the happy-productive pattern, and specifically, Social Support, Feedback from Others, Task Significance, Task Identity, and Autonomy, in this order, should be considered for intervention purposes.

Keywords: elementary school; happy-productive worker; social support; teachers; wellbeing; work characteristics; work design.